


Locked Doors, Broken Windows

by Crazythatcounts



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Kismisesis, Moirails, Multi, Post Game, Real Life, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-04-20 23:16:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4805918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazythatcounts/pseuds/Crazythatcounts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Games always have an end, but with every end is a new beginning.</p>
<p>EDIT: Post comic universe, edited slightly to reflect the actual end of comic. Now with less Vriska and more Dads. Also now with PLOT though there will be several chapters of domestic cuteness and BS so.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Locked Doors, Broken Windows

They had no idea if this was the end of the game.

 

They stood before a door, massive beyond everything they had seen, handle gleaming with the light of a tiny universe in the globe, and they couldn't be sure if it was really over. Even Rose couldn't really say, and Rose knew _everything_. Rose that journaled and catalogued and collected every single fragment of information she could; Rose that could _basically_ see into the future, no matter how many times she had to explain that it didn't work like that - Rose that just didn't _know_.

 

It was a little disconcerting, really, that she didn't know. They - eight kids, three trolls, and one adult half-dad who no one was sure could even _leave_ \- stood before the door, uneasy at its might. This was the logical step, of course, and they all knew that. Defeat the big bad evil, get the reward, and they'd gone and done it, gone and clocked the final boss back into last Tuesday (Dave checked, it was _actually_ Tuesday when he found the body, sprawled broken across a harsh red landscape) and now they were here. It wasn't like the game was ever shy about saying in no uncertain terms what their reward was, so this shouldn't have been a surprise to them.

 

But it still felt very... open ended.

 

"Should we just.... open it?" John asked, finally, breaking the silence. He looked at the figures around them, still roughed up from their battles, still bleeding and scraped and barely holding themselves together. He looked to Dave and Dirk, standing together, almost mirrored, Dirk having changed and Dave outright refusing to; then to Rose and Kanaya, the troll softly glowing, casting a pale light on Rose's paler face; Karkat and Roxy, both in awe of the sheer size of the door in front of them, the handle almost as big as Karkat's face, the troll facing yet again that brief moment of winning and dreading the fact that the last time he was here it was ripped from them. John then glanced to his side, to Jake and Jade and Jane, Jade's ears back in nervousness like maybe the door would attack, Jake's face twisted in concern, Jane wary. He didn't look to Terezi - he knew she was staring off into space at what she thought was the door and it made his heart jump to think about, but in a bad way, and he refused to acknowledge any of this _blackrom_ nonsense.

 

Their Dad, Jane's real father and in some way his son and yet so much his Dad still, stood quietly at the back, looking on in what could only be pride, and John didn't expect him to weigh in on the idea.

 

"Well, I'm not fucking touching it, that's for sure." Karkat snapped, loud as always and more nerves now than sheer anger. "I don't want to risk the universe deciding that, again, I'm not fucking fit to win this game and rip this door in two, again."

 

"Someone needs to open it." John said, raising his hands in the air like maybe he could just call forth a gust and blow the door open. "I mean, we beat the game, right? We did it, we won! Let's just... Let's just get the credits over with."

 

"But what happens when we do open the door?" Dirk was the one that asked, staring at the universe inside the handle and watching it spin. "Does anyone know what happens when we go through it, or if we can?"

 

"No one has ever recorded what happens at the end of the game." Rose shrugged from her position at the back of the platform, half supported by her matesprit in a way that suggested she was exhausted from their battles. "I can't see why."

 

"Well, then, let's go at this from a different standpoint." Dave finally spoke up, hands in his pockets, shades reflecting the soft blue glow the door gave off. "We have to open the door to win, right? The universe doesn't exist until we make it exist, so we can't go and just _not_ open. Besides, who wants to sit out here and never hear the end of it from the rest of the trolls?" Dave mentioned _the rest of_ the trolls, and everyone nodded. Those that did survive besides the two present wanted to stay behind, and there were fair few that did actually live. Terezi wanted to stay behind, because Vriska's injuries from whatever it is she did, while not life threatening, kept her from seeing the end and Terezi didn't want to not-see things without her moirail.

 

"So we have to open the door." Dave continued, unabated. Dave always tended to talk, though not because he was long winded or had a love of storytelling. It was honestly that sometimes Dave just forgot how to stop. "And if we open the door there's probably like eight hundred timelines ready to spring forth and stuff, specifically one where we do go in and one where we don't. Not going in also gets back to the Vriska won't shut up timeline so let's just go with us going through the thing and into the world. What's the worst thing that could happen?"

 

"We all instantaneously die horrible, horrible deaths due to paradoxically existing in the space which we created." Rose mentioned, a soft smirk on her face.

 

"Okay, so that's terrible. But then that's just the doomed timeline, right?" Dave shrugged. "Then the version of us that didn't go in gets to be Alpha us, and everything is fine." Of course, that was fine to Dave, but the idea of maybe being the consciousness of the version of themselves that _weren't_ the Alpha timeline still left most of the others uneasy. No one really grasped the idea of timelines like Dave did.

 

"What do you think it'll be like?" Jane asked, stepping up to the door and touching it. It was wooden, but soft wood, painted a light green, and it was warm under her hands. "Behind the door. Our universe."

 

"Maybe they'll crown us kings and queens." Jake said, tittering now with excitement, like they would have some kind of movie ending. "They'll make statues of us, since we made the universe and everything. We'll be like gods."

 

"That's less than likely." Rose shook her head, Kanaya moving with her towards the door. "I don't know anything for sure, but I can make an educated guess or two. The game is set up to breed universes, and to be fruitful, so the universe we step into needs to be able to manufacture and introduce the game, Sburb or Sgrub, or whatever it'll be called next, relatively quickly. It would be less than ideal for the universe behind that door to be many years behind where we were in technology's standing, because as we know, Skaia is counting for its losses and needs to produce new sessions quickly in order to make up for the fact that many sessions won't survive. So the game will probably come out within the decade of our joining, so that the kids born when we enter have a fair chance at playing."

 

"So basically we're gonna drop into what is more or less our own universe." Dave added, summarizing Rose's thoughts for himself.

 

"Yes and no. There will be variations. They may not be entirely human, but they'll be as advanced. That's what we don't know." She sat, heavy, definitely tired, and chuckled.

 

"Much in the way we assumed our universe would produce trolls and it produced you instead." Kanaya added, sitting down next to Rose, concerned now for the other girl's obviously declining health. "Rose, are you sure you're alright?"

 

"No, no. I'm fine." She waved off the concern. "We also do not know how we will be integrated into the society, or if we even will be. When I mentioned immediate death, I was actually quite serious. We have no idea if we'll be eliminated as soon as we enter the universe, as our role in the game has been finished."

 

"So we've got Death, Ridicule, and the Unknown as our three options here." Dirk chuckled. "I mean, I'd rather risk death again than face any more shit here."

 

"Then let's open it!" John nodded. He paused, watching every face turn to him. Every face looked to him, and he paled. He knew what they wanted, but he wasn't sure he wanted it himself. "Wait, no. Why are you looking at me?" He asked anyway, and the stares didn't cease, and he creased his brow and put his hands on his hips. "Why do I have to open it?" He asked, louder, unsure. This was a big moment, and he didn't feel like he had the right. This wasn't just his moment - he just sort of bolstered the team along when they needed it. He had no right swinging that door open.

 

"You're technically our leader, John." Rose offered, softly, Kanaya nodding along with her. She wasn't wrong, but the words brought a flush to John's face, pink against his cheeks, and he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

 

"You basically fixed everything." Dave added, quickly, before John could protest. "All that retconning shit. If it wasn't for you, we'd all be dead. Like, real serious Alpha timeline dead." Dave wasn't wrong either, and this whole thing seemed stacked against the poor boy.

 

"You started this whole thing." Jane stepped back from the door, taking John's gaze. He couldn't be as flustered or mad at her words, because still, for him, hearing her speak was like hearing his grandmother speak, and you really can't tell your grandma no. "We just tagged along, helped make everything easier. Without you, none of us would be here in the first place."

 

"It's always been you, John." The voice joined them from the edge of the circle. It was Dad, who had been lurking quietly on the edges of the circle, watching his children softly. Everyone was surprised at the words, because even in their reunion, Dad had been quiet. "Every moment in this game has always been leading up to it being you." He smiled, wise in the way that only adults can be wise, that only parents can be wise, and it was hard to tell him he was wrong.

 

"But other people did all the work." John turned to his half-Dad, pleading. If Vriska were here, she could just do it, he thought, wishing for it - she was the go getter, she was the one that did all the work re-writing the timeline, John just fixed a few issues here and there - but she wasn't there, and he wasn't going to get bailed out of this mess. Terezi chuckled at his downtrodden face, and that just made everything a little bit worse.

 

"Just because other people did work doesn't mean you weren't this session's leader." Terezi shrugged, looking to where she'd heard John's voice from. "Vriska did most of the work for us and our session, but I wouldn't call her our leader either, and I'm _biased_." Terezi shot him a grin, and he made a face - and he knew she could feel he made it. "If she weren't off in another timeline saving the world, she'd love to throw that door open. But she can't, because she's not here, so I'd open it before she gets back."

 

"I'd take the offer and just do it, man." Dave sidled up behind John, speaking softly. "Before she shows up and does it for you, and we're all stuck living with her on the new planet."

 

"We can do it with you, if you want." Roxy added, softly, and her smile was what actually did it. John nodded, stepping up to the handle that was too large for his one hand, and realized that had been the intent all along. The handle was for all of them to open, not just one - not just the leader, because too many people led too many things and Skaia understood. The game understood that the session survived not because they were skilled players, but because they were _friends_ above all else, and that friendship got them through to the end. Their bonds were the key to the door.

 

Everyone's hands fit on the handle, and the universe was warm underneath John's palm. This is the only way he'd ever have this.

 

The door was heavy, but it heaved easily under their touch, and swung greatly over them. They were bathed in a white light, and they didn't have a choice, as they vanished into the pale gloom as soon as the light brushed them, and the door clicked closed behind them.


End file.
